Tech giant Microsoft has collaborated with SRL Diagnostics to train its artificial intelligence (AI) system in detecting cancer.

Microsoft plans to teach its AI system to find the traits of cancerous cells that trained pathologists do manually by looking at a slice of the patient’s tissue on a glass slide.

SRL’s bank of more than one million such slides from past diagnosis will be used as the training material for the AI system. Microsoft has already deployed its AI system for early detection of blindness in people suffering from diabetes and assessing cardiovascular health of patients.

According to Microsoft, this cancer-detecting solution will not replace the need of an oncologist, but the goal is for the AI system to speed up, make more accurate and give valid pointers to the doctor to make the right diagnosis. This will reduce the cost of treatment, better utilise the time of trained specialists to reach more patients and make healthcare in general more patient-centric.